Date Anxiety
by Illusions of Insanity
Summary: Silver never worried too much about a date. He never scrambled to clean his entire house just so that it would be clean by the time his girlfriend arrived. He never went overboard when it came to getting around in the morning. Yeah, those were all lies. He totally did that. (HeartGoldHeadcanon)(Valentine's Day Oneshot)


There was something slightly off about Silver that morning.

Granted, the boy did many odd things that his poor Pokémon could not understand, but this one took the cake. It wasn't even eleven in the morning and the redhead was rushing around as if he had slept an entire day away. He scrambled to make breakfast for himself and his team before starting an all-out cleaning spree of his treehouse home. He dusted the furniture, mopped the floors, put away the assorted mess of living and even straightened the couch! His poor, confused team looked at each other with wide eyes. What fever had the boy caught to make a _teenager_ clean his home as if his life depended on it?

Despite his off behavior, Silver seemed in a good mood. The redhead hummed to himself as he put away his cleaning supplies, passing his Typhlosion and Sneasel as he did so. Once the mop and duster had been returned to his living room closet, he gave them both a pat on the head and rushed off to his room again. The Volcano Pokémon looked down at the shorter Pokémon beside him and rumbled with confusion. Seeing their Trainer like this...it was just weird.

The redhead found himself staring in his closet with a determined scowl. Of all the times to own basically one outfit, why now? He sighed and struggled to find a jacket that looked more new than his current navy blue one. His namesake eyes scanned the small space until they settled upon a jacket that had a little less mileage than the others. He smiled and plucked it from the hanger, heading to get changed after finding a pair of light blue-grey pants to wear with it. His Pokémon trailed behind him expectantly, trying to figure out what he was even doing that morning. Surely he remembered their training schedule?

"That ought to do it," Silver mumbled to himself as he checked his choice of attire in the mirror. "I mean, it's not a suit...but it looks nice enough, right?" He bit his lip in silent irritation before looking to his snooping Sneasel. The Sharp Claw Pokémon went to hide but Silver just reached down and rubbed behind his ear. Seeing that his eavesdropping was ignored, he chirped at his Trainer to try and find the reason behind his behavior. Silver just chuckled and shook his head, apparently refusing to answer. Sneasel pouted. So much for gentle prodding.

"Now," Silver rumbled, once again staring at his reflection above the sink, "What should I do about this darn cowlick..." The teenager gave the offending hair bunch a flick and scowled. "Why can't you just stay flat for _one_ day," he sighed, as if it could answer him. The boy located his comb, wet the bristles under the faucet and started to try and comb it down, which resulted in it sticking back up every single time. He growled angrily as Sneasel just tilted his head and watched from the doorway. "Stay down! I just need one day, then you can never listen to me again."

After about five minutes, the boy gave up after realizing that it just curled back upright once it dried. His partner chirped from the floor, watching and wondering why he was so fickle this morning. Silver looked down and gave his Pokémon a grumpy look, but his attitude was obviously pointed elsewhere. "I need to get around because Lyra and I have a date today," he grumbled. "I've only got three hours before she's right at my door! I'll never be done by then at this rate!"

At the mention of Lyra, his Pokémon jumped up and started squeaking endlessly, eager to see his Trainer's rival again. Silver's eyes widened as his partner ran in circles for a few moments. "No, no, no," he scolded. "Don't get so excited. You're going to make everyone else start—" Too late. Sneasel ran off and happily explained the situation to the rest of Silver's team. The boy felt his shoulders slump as a hearty cry rose up from his living room. He then used his dignity to hide his face in his hands. "You all are hopeless," he whimpered. "Now you'll be right by the door until she gets here..." True to his worries, his team ran to the front door and sat happily, waiting for her to knock or even open it with the key Silver had given her. Sneasel watched from the nearby window, his crimson eyes happily watching through the falling snow for any sign of the brunette.

The redhead pulled on his face and looked to his mirror. "Okay then, now what do I need to do?" He glanced around his bathroom before thinking of the obvious. He opened the cabinet below the sink and fished out a small bottle of cologne. He smirked as he placed it on the sink's flat rim and stared at it. "Perfect," he chuckled as he carefully decided how to use it. The first time he used it, he had gone a little overboard and ended up overpowering everything with the stuff. Thankfully, Lyra had taken it in stride and just laughed it off with that adorable snort she made when she laughed. As much as Silver liked that sound, he decided that using it sparingly would be a much better idea this time around.

Silver cautiously applied it to his person, making sure that it wasn't strong enough to be apparent from nearly five feet away as he had been last time. Once he checked his work, he confidently tucked it away and strode out into the living room. His team hardly glanced his way, as they were too engrossed in watching the door for any signs of movement. "Guys, please don't sit there for hours." His plea was of course ignored, but at least he could honestly say he had tried to an extent. He narrowed his eyes in thought. "What time is it anyway," he wondered aloud. He glanced at the clock hanging on his wall and felt his heart drop when it still read somewhere after eleven in the morning. That had been _ages_ ago.

"The clock stopped," he hissed unhappily. "Dang it! Where's my watch?" He frantically ran to his room to collect his watch and try and check the time. As soon as he picked it up, a knock on the door made him stop in his tracks. "She's here!" Panicking, he put the device away and tried to get to the door while his Pokémon cheered and swarmed the small space with excitement.

"Back up," he commanded as he tried to slip past them. "I need to reach the door before—" His voice died as the sound of keys jingling reached his ears. From the other side, someone unlocked the door and walked inside. There was Lyra Soul, wearing her usual casual wear of a leather jacket and skinny jeans. Silver felt his throat go dry as he froze, unable to move as his team swarmed the young Champion and made her laugh at their enthusiastic greetings.

"Oi, you big babies," she laughed as Typhlosion rested his front paws on her shoulders and roared with happiness. "Could you give me five seconds to walk inside before you smother me?" Her question was answered by Crobat landing on her head and chirping with content. Lyra just laughed it off once again. "Alright, be that way," she announced between laughs. "You can all be big babies. I'm sure Silver's given up on trying to stop you from being softies at this point, anyway."

At the mention of his name, Silver snapped back to the realm of the living. He took a quick glance at his Pokémon before walking towards his girlfriend. "Lyra, I'm sorry about their—"

"Nonsense," she interrupted, giving him a playful glare. "They've always done this when I come over for a date. Might as well continue the tradition, eh?"

"B-But it's...!"

"Valentine's Day," she offered as the crowd slowly dispersed. "So what? You don't have to try and make this all stuffy and super romantic or whatever." She paused and gave the redhead a smile. "Let's just treat this as if it were any normal day."

Silver felt his face flush. He should have known that Lyra wouldn't want him to make a big deal about it. She never had been one for great dramatics or declarations of undying love. She was more relaxed than that. He was about to say something when Lyra finally escaped the mass of Pokémon and wrapped her arms around him. He paused for a moment in surprise before returning the gesture, leaving them standing in the living room with smiles on their faces.

Suddenly, Lyra stiffened. "Silver...are you wearing cologne again?"

Silver once again blushed. "Well...I...er," he stumbled, trying to find a way to explain without admitting that he had stressed over this date _way_ too much that morning. Once again, Lyra Soul just laughed and shook her head.

"Maybe I should have called ahead and explained that this was a casual date beforehand," she laughed. Silver chuckled in embarrassment before his girlfriend happily pulled out a movie from her bag. "But, guess what I brought with me?"

Silver's metallic eyes narrowed. "Isn't that...that one movie that was supposed to be a really terrible romantic comedy? You know, the one that got negatives all across the board?"

Lyra's eyes lit up. "You know it," she replied proudly. "It's high time you and I rip apart another terrible movie and laugh at how terrible everything in it is." Her enthusiasm jumped to her redheaded rival and he beamed with bright eyes.

"That sounds great!" He looked to the television sitting in the living room before pointing to his kitchen area. "Popcorn with a mountain of butter and salt," he asked with a smirk.

"You know it!"

Silver laughed again. Below them, his Pokémon watched happily. "I'll go ahead and get that while you set up the DVD Player!" He then rushed off to do just that, leaving his girlfriend chuckling. He had made good progress in filling his popcorn popper with kernels before Lyra made a small snort of amusement in the other room.

"Good thing you didn't go too overboard for this," she said between laughs. "I mean, cologne isn't that bad. The obvious cleaning you did is fine. But could you imagine if you had actually went and gotten us some really expensive reservation at some fancy restaurant?" Silver froze and stopped pouring popcorn into the machine. Suddenly, he remembered exactly why he had been in such a rush to look presentable that morning. "At least you didn't do that this year."

"...Whoops."

* * *

 _Author's Note: What's Valentine's Day without a bit of dorky soulsilvershipping? Commercialism. That's what it is. This pair is the heart and soul of this holiday.  
_

 _...that pun was both bad and intentional and I regret nothing._


End file.
